The L. Anthony Sutin Civic Imagination Award Announcement

The Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (the COPS Office) has announced a call for nominations for the 2012 L. Anthony Sutin Civic Imagination Award. The Sutin Civic Imagination Award, which will be presented at the August 2012 COPS Conference The Evolution of Public Safety in America…Building on a Tradition of Service, Toward a Future of Innovation, recognizes a law enforcement officer and community member team whose innovative civic interaction has transformed public safety in their community. This nominee team should be actively engaged in community collaborations while harnessing the problem solving philosophy. This nominee team should be engaged in a multi-faceted manner that has been sustained over time and has resulted in positive observable public safety outcomes.

An ideal nominee team:

• creates sustainable collaborations that are innovative, creative, and transformative;
• displays civic leadership through problem solving and collaborative partnerships;
• institutionalizes sustainable, positive observable public safety outcomes; and
• promotes public safety through a dedication to the community policing philosophy.

The L. Anthony Sutin Civic Imagination Award is named in memory of Tony Sutin, who served as a founder and Deputy Director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services from its creation in 1994 until 1996, when he became the principal deputy to the Associate Attorney General of the United States. He then served as Acting Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs before joining the faculty of the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Virginia, in 1999. He quickly became Dean of the Appalachian School of Law and served in this capacity until his untimely death on January 16, 2002. A distinguished graduate of Harvard Law School and former partner of the law firm Hogan & Hartson in Washington, D.C., Tony was widely known and respected for his brilliant intellect, quiet wit, and tremendous commitment to service and community. It is with great admiration and respect for Tony’s many contributions to the COPS Office and the principles of community policing that the COPS Office names this award in his memory.

A nomination must include the attached nomination form, a narrative encompassing the above four bullets, and a maximum of two supporting letters. All narratives are limited to a two-page document in 12-point Times New Roman font. Only submissions written in a word processing package such as MS Word or WordPerfect, or submitted as an Adobe file, will be accepted. Click here for additional information on the nomination criteria.

The deadline to submit a nomination is May 1, 2012 at 5:00 PM EST. Nominations will not be considered if received after 5:00 PM EST. All nominations must be sent via email to SutinAward@usdoj.gov or via fax to 202.616.8658 (ATTN: Kimberly Nath). 

Direct all general inquiries to Kimberly Nath at SutinAward@usdoj.gov.